30 Jun 2017

Man tries to crash car into Paris mosque

11:59 am on 30 June 2017

A man has been arrested after trying to drive a car into a crowd in front of a mosque in the Paris suburb of Creteil.

A police van stationed at a mosque in the Paris suburb of Creteil where a man tried to drive a car into a crowd.

A police van stationed at the mosque in the Paris suburb of Creteil where a man tried to drive a car into a crowd. Photo: AFP

Police said the man's motives were unclear, and he had not succeeded in reaching the crowd because of barriers in front of the mosque.

No-one was injured.

An investigation, to be carried out by a regular police department rather than an anti-terrorism unit, would determine whether the man could be held accountable for his actions.

According to Le Parisien newspaper, the man said he had wanted to avenge attacks linked to Islamic State that have killed dozens in Paris over the past years.

A forensic tent at the scene of the van attack on worshippers at a mosque in  Finsbury Park, north London.

The arrest in Paris came 10 days after a terror attack in London in which a man drove a van at Muslim worshippers leaving a mosque. Photo: AFP

Last week, a man drove a van at Muslim worshippers leaving a mosque in London.

Ten people were injured, two of them seriously, and one died at the scene, when the van ploughed into worshippers close to the Muslim Welfare House in Finsbury.

The man was charged with terrorism-related murder and attempted murder.

France is under a state of emergency after a wave of militant attacks since early 2015 that have killed more than 230 people across the country. Last week, a car filled with weapons deliberately hit a police van before bursting into flames on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in central Paris.

- Reuters

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